South African artist Kirsten Beets works mainly with oils on paper, her main subjects and themes focusing on how people interact with nature in a recreational way. Beets prefers to capture scenes from a high vantage point before filling them in with the tiniest details. Since it’s February in Pennsylvania I’m feeling especially drawn toward these warm swimming pool and park scenes, each one represented by an abstract geometric shape.

Adobe Capture – Turn photos into color palettes, patterns, type, materials and shapes to use with your favorite Creative Cloud apps. With just a tap on your mobile screen, you can transform what you see into creative building blocks for all your designs.

Melodist – By analyzing the changes in hues, saturation and brightness, Melodist generates the mode, scale, chord progression and melody automatically, turning every photo into a piece of beautiful music.

ROW 2

Paint Tester – Finding the right color for a room can be a challenge, but Paint Tester shows you the results without all the pain of painting and repainting. Easily try out colors from the palette or take a photo of a color you’d like to try, and apply it to pictures of your own home.

Pee & See – Pee & See is a simple water reminder app that doesn’t need to know when you drink water or how much you drink. Instead, just tap one button every time you go to the bathroom. When you haven’t peed for 3 hours you’ll get a reminder to drink water (except at night).

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Plant Life Balance – Choose from one of seven ‘living looks’, then drag and drop your favorite plants into your room to see how they will make your space healthier and more relaxing. The app even rates the health and well-being of your space based on how many plants you have in it – drawing on results from a study carried out by RMIT University.

Seasonal Food Guide – Find what produce is in season in your state at any time of year with info on 140+ fruits, veggies, legumes, nuts, and herbs, the Seasonal Food Guide is the most comprehensive digital almanac of seasonal local food available.

SMARTIFY – Love visiting art galleries but hate not knowing the stories behind the artworks? Join the thousands of people who have used SMARTIFY in museums and galleries across the world to discover and share art.

ROW 4

Sun – Sun is centered around a single weather line visualising the temperature and precipitation by the hour.

Trips – Explore every day with Trips — a beautiful, simple and intuitive way to share travel experiences. Upload photos and videos to your timeline, then share your trip with your friends, family and fellow travellers. Discover new places, be inspired by stories from the Lonely Planet community and start planning your next adventure.

Verena – Verena is a personal security system for the LGBTQ+ community, giving you the tools you need to keep you safe while you live as the person you were meant to be. Create an account, and develop a network of emergency contacts, who can be alerted without leaving a trace on your phone.

Shot on the streets of Manhattan with a telephoto lens, Louis De Belle‘s Cartographies reduces humanity to the bare minimum visually. De Belle wanted to highlight ordinary things that usually go unnoticed, in particular the minutia of them. In the end the photos take on an unexpected abstraction that tells the stories of commuters through their clothing.

Creases, sweat stains or even dirt, are the only hints one can see. They tell us about an employee’s day at the desk, a commuter’s routine on the subway or a workman’s shift. These few traces, along the folds of the different clothing, become impressions of everyday lives, eventually cartographies of everyone’s journeys.

One of my pets passing away isn’t something I enjoy thinking about, but with two cats ages 17 and 18 it’s often in the back of my mind. I know that they’ll be cremated, but beyond that I hadn’t thought much about it. But then I came across Big Sky Urns‘ handmade ceramic and wood flower vases that double as a final resting place for your beloved pet once they’ve passed. The modern vessels manage to be sentimental without being tacky and no one would guess their true purpose without being in the know.

John Honeywill‘s paintings of sweets and flowers feel like the perfect thing to share this Valentine’s Day, and honestly I’d rather receive one of his pieces than their subject matter! His tabletop still lifes have a way of making the viewer feel very present in the moment, visually exploring every nook and cranny while maybe getting a sugar craving at the same time.

Meghan Hildebrand often revisits the same symbols and themes throughout her work. Simple shapes take on larger meanings, translating the northern coastal landscape she often depicts into an electrifying dreamscape.

Despite frequent reinvention, her works often return to familiar themes – the childhood dream, a sense of journey over land, and the ‘personality’ of place. Defined points of interest, doorways and inlets, invite the viewer to enter the image and join the narrative.

For weeks now it seems like if it hasn’t been snowing, it’s been raining. (It’s happening even now as I type.) My usual meals of chicken and Brussels sprouts or kitchen sink salads just haven’t been comforting enough, so there’s been plenty of warming soups and stews on the menu. This Vegetable Beef Soup is easy to pull together on either the stovetop or in a slow cooker, with plenty of tender vegetables to fill up your belly.

In a large stockpot heat 1 Tbsp olive oil on medium-high heat. Add half of the steak, stirring frequently until well browned. Remove and transfer to another plate. Repeat with remaining steak. Reduce heat to medium-low and add the remaining olive oil along with the onion, cook while stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, carrots, celery, and potatoes and continue to cook for another 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, as well as the steak, to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and cover the pot, simmer for 20 to 30 minutes or until steak and vegetables are tender. Remove bay leaves and serve.

(This recipe can also be made in a slow cooker. Follow the above directions through the browning of the steak, then combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours, until vegetables are tender.)

Langdon Graves is a double threat artist, completely gifted in both illustration and sculpture. I’m especially drawn to the former because of her experiments with illusion that employ plenty of realism.